For years now, Junior Witter has been challenging Ricky Hatton. The match of British 140-pounders, the top two in the world at the weight, would be intriguing and eagerly awaited. If there is any chance at all of it happening, though, Witter must beat Timothy “Desert Storm” Bradley in their title fight in Nottingham on Saturday (ITV in Britain, Showtime delayed same-day coverage in the U.S.).

You’ve heard of the old classic sci-fi movie The Incredible Shrinking Man. In Britain on Saturday it’s The Incredible Shrinking Show. Promoter Mick Hennessy put together a terrific bill for ITV in Britain and Showtime in America, then, piece by piece, it fell apart.

Argentina’s Omar Narvaez is one of those fighters who doesn’t mind where he boxes. The unbeaten WBO flyweight champion has defended his title twice in Italy and three times in France in his six-year reign.

Time was when a U.S. Olympic heavyweight representative would attract attention in his pro career, but those days are long gone, as shown by the case of Devin Vargas. Vargas, who lost in his second bout in Athens, has won 15 successive bouts as a professional but there has been hardly a ripple of interest.

Mike Arnaoutis, who gave a surprisingly passive display against Kendall Holt, is back after an 11-month break from boxing and eager to show that his form against Holt was just an off night. The Greek southpaw easily outpointed Harrison Cuello in March — not a bad performance considering that Cuello had just stopped Edgar Santana in a big upset — but Arnaoutis is matched much tougher when he meets the unbeaten Lanardo Tyner on Friday Night Fights.

Two crowd-pleasing junior welters clash on Friday when unbeaten Mike Alvarado takes on once-defeated Michel Rosales in an excellent Telefutura main event. Each fighter is promoted by Top Rank. The winner moves ahead, perhaps towards a championship fight, so the 10-rounder is a sort of unofficial eliminator.

Unbeaten 122-pound contender Mike Oliver has one of those marking-time type of fights when he meets Colombian Reynaldo Lopez in an all-southpaw 10-round main event on Wednesday Night Fights. Oliver was originally matched with Mexico’s Julio Zarate, which would have been something to look forward to, but promoter Rich Cappiello tells me that Zarate’s camp did not want the fight on the date that was offered to them. Lopez, who was battered by Daniel Ponce De Leon in his last fight, is obviously a big step down from Zarate.

An appearance by Oscar De La Hoya is always a big event, so even though he is a massive betting favourite there is considerable interest in his fight with Steve Forbes in the Los Angeles suburbs on Saturday.

Italy’s Andrea Sarritzu had a life-and-death struggle when retaining his European flyweight title with a draw against Bernard Inom, of France, last June. The decision was controversial, with the crowd in Inom’s hometown of Ajaccio believing their man was the winner. On Saturday the two meet again for the European title, but this time Sarritzu has home advantage as the fight is in Sardinia.

It’s funny what a defeat can do for a fighter. In February, cruiserweight banger Darnell “Ding-A-Ling Man” Wilson lost a unanimous decision to B. J. Flores, but on Saturday he finds himself fighting for a world title in Germany when he meets Firat Arslan.

Up-and-coming lightweights meet in the opening bout on ShoBox when Antonio DeMarco meets unbeaten Juan Castaneda in an eight-rounder made at 135 pounds. This is an “in house” fight, with both boxers represented by promoter Gary Shaw. The tall, southpaw DeMarco had a rousing win on ShoBox last September when he outpointed Nick Casal. He has won his last seven bouts and is a well-schooled young fighter who can either box at long distance or stand his ground and punch on the inside — he does both equally well.

ShoBox has another evenly matched main event on Friday with unbeaten 168-pounder Andre Dirrell meeting the more experienced Anthony Hanshaw in a 10-rounder between former top-level amateurs. Dirrell, the Olympic bronze medallist from Flint, MI, has speed and skill, and he is a southpaw, but Hanshaw looks the stronger man and has fought the tougher opposition, which includes giving Roy Jones Jr. a lively tussle last July. Hanshaw weighed 175 pounds for that fight but Friday’s bout is made at a weight of 169 pounds.

Rendall Munroe produced a classy display of boxing when he took the European 122-pound title from Spanish banger Kiko Martinez in March and now, barely a month later, he is defending the championship against French veteran Salem Bouaita.

Ian Napa, the British bantamweight champion, is delightful to watch, a real craftsman. His big problem is that he lacks stopping power, with just one inside the distance win in 22 fights — and that was when his opponent, Lee Haskins, suffered an arm injury.

Unbeaten Canadian-based Nigerian middleweight Albert Onolunose faces by far his stiffest test when he meets the tall, rangy and ringwise Eddie Sanchez in an eight-rounder that opens the Wednesday Night Fights telecast.

Colombian big-hitter Joel Julio battered Contender Season 2 competitor Cornelius Bundrage in his last fight. On Wednesday he takes on one of the reality TV series’ biggest names, Ishe Smith, in a 10-round junior middleweight bout made at 154 pounds. Will the Contender, in the manner of the Star Wars Empire, strike back? A packed house of 1,100 at Vancouver’s River Rock casino and TV viewers watching Wednesday Night Fights will be eager to find out.

SATURDAY A.M. PREVIEW: Rising Filipino 122-pounder Bernabe Concepcion makes his second consecutive appearance in Mexico when he meets Torrence Daniels in a 10-rounder on tonight’s Chavez-Loriga PPV show.

SATURDAY A.M. PREVIEW: Former featherweight champion Orlando Salido, who lost almost a year of his career when suspended due to a positive test for steroids, is featured in a 10-rounder against Panama’s Renan Acosta on tonight’s PPV show.

SATURDAY A.M. PREVIEW: I thought that Hector Camacho Jr. was just going to fade away after some lacklustre showings and an unseemly weight gain, but the people at Top Rank are giving him a chance. Camacho, 29, is featured on tonight’s PPV show from Mexico in a middleweight 10-rounder against the Minnesota trial horse Kenny Kost.

After struggling to stop Jose Celaya in his last fight, Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. promised a better performance next time. That next time is on Saturday night, when Chavez meets Italian junior middle champ Tobia Loriga in a 10-rounder at a sold-out bull ring in Mexico, with PPV coverage as part of Top Rank’s “Latin Fury” series.

A fight originally scheduled for last November will finally take place on Saturday’s big show in Dresden when undefeated Sergiy Dzinziruk defends his WBA 154-pound title against tough Lukas Konecny of the Czech Republic.

FRIDAY UPDATE: Turkish welterweight prospect Selcuk Aydin is taking a significant step up in class when he meets South African Lucky Lewele on Saturday in a 12-rounder that should give a good idea of Aydin’s potential.

Challenger DeAndrey Abron seems to have come out of nowhere, but here he is, going in with the undefeated Zsolt Erdei for the WBO light-heavy title in Dresden on Saturday. You have to wonder sometimes how boxers get title fights. In Abron’s case, he won the WBO’s North American title, which shows that these so-called “meaningless” regional belts can sometimes lead to much bigger things.

THURSDAY UPDATE Preview updated with additional information Roman Martinez, the unbeaten Puerto Rican junior lightweight, was involved in one of last year’s most exciting fights when he stopped Daniel Jimenez in the 12th round of a war. He has always been a gritty crowd-pleaser but he excelled himself in that fight, weathering some hard shots and finally breaking his man down late in the bout.

FRIDAY A.M. UPDATE: There should be plenty of punches thrown and lots of give and take when Bronx-Ukrainian Andrey Tsurkan goes in with Las Vegas crowd-pleaser Jesse Feliciano in the 10-round catchweight main event on Friday Night Fights.

Two fighters who lost widely to Ricky Hatton meet in an IBF junior welter title eliminator on Wednesday Night Fights when Colombian Juan Urango takes on veteran Carlos Wilfredo Vilches, of Argentina.

Unbeaten middleweight puncher “Mean” Joe Greene is expected to make his breakthrough into world class this year. In February the 22-year-old Brooklyn southpaw beat up veteran Francisco Mora in 10 rounds for his 18th consecutive win and he looks ready for the higher-level type of fights. A little more seasoning will help, though, and Greene could get a good test on Wednesday Night Fights when he meets fellow-southpaw Joshua Okine in a scheduled 10-rounder.

FRIDAY NIGHT UPDATE: This article continues additional thoughts on Saturday's big fight. Weigh-ins can be revealing, and a couple of things struck me about the one held on Friday for Saturday's big light-heavyweight fight between Bernard Hopkins and Joe Calzaghe.

In a crowded boxing weekend, U.S. fans have a chance to watch a big fight from Poland on Saturday when ESPN Classic shows the intriguing 12-round cruiserweight elimination bout between Tomasz Adamek and O’Neil Bell.

Every so often a fighter comes along who is one of those “mystery” men — he looks as if he has the potential to be dangerous and you wonder if his opponent is doing the right thing in meeting him. Chris “Hard Hittin’ ” Henry is a bit of a mystery to me but he certainly looks a dangerous opponent for Adrian Diaconu in their 12-round light-heavyweight title elimination match in Romania on Saturday. It can be seen free of charge on DonKingNetwork.tv.

The chief supporting bout on Friday Night Fights should be more entertaining and competitive than the main event when the much-improved Jose Luis Gonzalez from Kansas meets Oklahoma local boxer Carson Jones in a 10-round junior middleweight rematch.

Kevin “Kingpin” Johnson is expected to stay unbeaten when he meets local journeyman Terry Smith in the Friday Night Fights heavyweight main event from Oklahoma but the main interest will be in how he performs.

Once considered one of British boxing’s bright hopes, Ryan Rhodes has dropped down a weight division and tries to regain a title he held 12 years ago when he meets Gary “Hot Stuff” Woolcombe for the British light-middle title at York Hall on Friday.